A season with high hopes and expectations came to a disappointing end for the Boston Celtics on Friday following their loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Garden. The Celtics finished in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference and came into the playoffs with high praise and momentum. However, they came up drastically short in the second round. They looked like a completely different team in that series than they had before, but this was no fluke.
The Celtics and their coaching staff, led by Head Coach Joe Mazzulla, rely heavily on analytics for their strategy and gameplay. Most modern analytics suggest that shooting 3 pointers is a better value shot than shooting 2 pointers. Because of this, the Celtics shot the most threes per game in the NBA, averaging 47.2 (“NBA Team”). They won about 75% of their games in the regular season (NBA.com), so this was an effective strategy.
However, I believe that their unwillingness to change or adapt their strategy after they struggled shooting to start the series is the reason they lost. After shooting 25% from 3 in both Games 1 and 2, they went down 0-2 in the series. However, they would not abandon their strategy and continued to shoot an average of 44.5 threes per game (Real Sports). Coaches and teams need to be able to read situations and games without sticking to the same strategy every time. The Celtics used the “ride or die” method with the three pointer and it failed them. In my opinion, they needed to drive the ball into the paint and take more 2 pointers. They tried the same thing over and over and it produced the same results, LOSSES.
With the addition of their star player, Jayson Tatum, suffering a torn achilles in Game 4, it was unlikely they were going to comeback to win the series. But, I believe that what really killed them was their unwillingness to change. To be successful in the playoffs, one must adapt and focus on what’s working. I think we will see the Celtics back in the playoffs and will make another surge towards a championship once they look back at this season and correct their mistakes of stubbornness and trust in the 3 pointer.
Works Cited:
“Box Score: Celtics vs Knicks.” Real Sports, John Antonelli, www.realsports.io.
“NBA Team Three Pointers Attempted per Game.” Team Rankings, www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/
“Team Standings & Stats.” NBA.com, www.nba.com/standings.
